The content charisma of colorful footwear

The other day I went to buy some new socks, since mine had holes in them. You might think it’s weird, but that shopping experience inspired this post. (It’s a metaphor – hint, hint). The socks on the rack were like content on the web: tons of choices, but some had more charisma than others. That is, more content charisma (a term I first heard from Laura A. Hernandez).

Charisma is part of personality. So let’s look at yours.

What’s your personality?

Do you wear black socks, colorful socks or no socks?

Do you drive a sedan, a minivan, a convertible, or an SUV?

Do you find humor in life, or take things pretty seriously?

Would you rather be inside a boardroom or outside in a park?

Are you more comfortable speaking, writing or reading?

Do you seek people out or prefer to be alone?

And finally, what do these questions have to do with startup businesses and content marketing?

The answer is that they can influence your content charisma, your content personality.

What is content charisma?

Content charisma is the energy and attractiveness emanating from your website, your blog, your videos, your social posts and the rest of your content.

Your personality as a content marketer colors your content charisma. If you’re flamboyant, the content you create will likely be flamboyant as well. If you’re more conservative by nature, your content will be, too.

That’s all well and good. You are who you are.

But what about your ideal customers? Who are they, and what’s their personality?

Match content charisma to customer personality

If your ideal customers are all buttoned up, by all means, you should produce content with a straight-laced, no-nonsense appeal.

But if your ideal customers are risk-takers, or looking for change, or yearning to be different, or trendy – you may want to match your content charisma with their more outgoing personality.

In other words, you may want to wear more colorful socks.

When content charisma clashes with personas

If the content you create is conservative, but your ideal customer is anything but, you’ve got “content clash.” This also happens when the reverse is true (flashy content, conservative targets.)

That’s why spending time to develop rich personas is so important. Your goal as a content marketer is to appeal to and help your best prospective customers, no matter what your own personality looks like. Define the personality of your best prospects first, and then develop content to match. Remember, it’s not about you.

Laura Hernandez had this to say: “…to keep themselves on the radar of buyers who are doing most of their purchase research without interacting with a salesperson, companies must make their content compelling, empathetic, and empowering… in other words, charismatic.”

Get help when you need it

So what happens if you wear black socks and your ideal customer prefers colorful stripes?